My latest steak-adventure brought me to Las Vacas at SS5 Kelana Jaya, a meat shop cum steak joint that is enjoying a growing popularity among steak lovers recently. They even opened a branch at Mont Kiara not too long ago. So you could say the owners made a smart move by venturing into restaurant business.
While almost everyone is raving about their steaks, sadly my dining experience was marred by a rodent incident. I don’t know why but things like bad service and cleanliness issues seem to find me on their own lol. For example, Kin Kin Chili Pan Mee and that Soo Kee Sang Har Meen. Anyway, more about that later.
Basically there are four types of meat served here: Wagyu, Angus, Grain Fed and Grass Fed and three types of cuts: Ribeye, Striploin and Rump. We were not prepared to fork out for the premium meat just as yet since we were just testing the water. I had the Ribeye Angus @ RM28/100gm.
One thing I like about Las Vacas is the courteousness shown by the owners. They would engage you about your meat preferences and recommend accordingly along with the serving size. Then he would cut the meat at the counter and send it to the kitchen.
If you are planning to have your meat cooked medium rare it is better to order at least one that is at least 200gm because the thicker meat would be easier to cook to the specified doneness. And because the meats are not pre-marinated, they have a very superficial taste. So if you like your steaks to be very flavorful, you should probably look elsewhere.
My 200gm Ribeye Angus @ RM56 was perfectly cooked and seasoned only with black pepper and salt, just nice to bring out the meat’s full natural flavor. And the sides are pretty good too.
SL had the Ribeye Grain Fed, priced at RM23/100gm. It is slightly inferior in terms of taste compared to the Angus, which is an unfair comparison anyway. If you’re looking for a satisfying steak under RM50, this would be the one. But if you are willing to pay a bit more (~RM10) I suggest you get the Angus instead. I couldn’t say for the Wagyu though, since we didn’t try that.
Some meats you could buy from Las Vacas, they are quite reasonably priced.
Now, about the rodent incident. I mentioned before the staff would send the raw meat to the kitchen to cook right? Now, the kitchen and the dining area/meat counter is actually separated by a sliding glass door, which the waitress forgot to close after delivering our steaks. As usual I would snap my food first before digging in. Then suddenly SL and I noticed something dark crawling past us towards the meat counter, then hiding under it. Yeah it was a rat.
The ironic and funny thing was, only we and another table of family saw that rat while the staff was totally unaware of it. I alerted the person in charge and he also acknowledged there was a ‘new’ rat in the house they have yet successfully trapped. Uhh.. ok.
Of course my appetite was affected but luckily the steak was really good and thankfully we did not have any stomach upset after the meal. While I understand that rodent problem is common for restaurants, I did not expect one to crawl out of the kitchen to greet the diners…
If you are wondering, they did not attempt to chase the hiding rat. I would have done the same if I were them. I wouldn’t want a panic rat running around the restaurants causing chaos to the customers, would I? It will only cause a scene anyway.
Just for the record, I feel Las Vacas is a clean restaurant and I don’t intend to hurt their business. After all, they were just featured at Jalan-Jalan Cari Makan on TV3 just now (at time of writing) But I also feel I have the responsibility to report my honest dining experience to my readers.
Kelana Jaya (near Wisma FAM)
No 23, Jalan SS5A/11, Kelana Jaya 47301
Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
GPS Coordinates: N3 05.739 E101 36.313
Tel: +603 7874 0711
Operating Hours:
10am to 9.30pm (Tuesdays to Thursdays)
10am to 10.30pm (Fridays & Sundays)
10am to 6pm (Saturdays)
Closed on Mondays
I don’t really blame them for the rodent incident but I blame the MPPJ and DBKL for not doing their work.
Las Vacas offers awesome steak.
Rat in the kitchen? That’s totally off putting!!
Good food places always attract rodents. But seeing the photos of the steak somehow makes it a little easier to forget about the rat.
Do they aged their meat/steak properly?
I will definitely love to try this place
rat?.. maybe it’s just the cook ;) #ratatouille
very nice honest review here.. as we know, rat is a pest and its almost impossible to have free zone of pest .. esp in kl / pj
Went there last week with family, being steak newbie, I would say this is the best steak we ever had (if I recall correctly, we only had steak 3 times in the past, hehe), and the most expensive.. but it worth every single penny.. Thanks vkeong for your review
if there’s a rat , too bad.. no matter how good the place is, im not going there anymore. reason is because .. they should have known what business they are conduction and they know best but in this case… they just fell below the mark.
I was at their Mont Kiara branch recently, thankfully no rat in sight
the steak we had was marvelous………
Rat in my Kitchen!! Beautiful!
Must Watch This!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG51Z_RLwT0
I had a really bad food poisoning after this restaurant in ss5 .. BAD Bad. Tried angus also. Would not say its nice since it messed up 3 days of my working day and raya.
Went to the one in SS5 Klana Jaya near FAM.
1. Service was bad. With only two tables occupied in the shop, food took a good 25-30 minutes to come.
2. Sitting outside comes with bad smell (trash) and full of flies. Perhaps you can invest in one (or two) of those UV insect repellent/killer for the comfort of your customers.
3. Two out of 4 of the steaks we ordered came wrongly cooked. A 500g sirloin ordered medium rare, came rare. A 200-g ribeye ordered medium well, came well-done. When complained about the 200g rib-eye, the waiter took it away and said they will make a new one. A new one came, indeed. With half the size, only about 5mm thick!!! That’s outright cheating and not a good way to try to steal money from your customers. Not cool.
It will be my last time here. Thanks.